Last family member sentenced in scheme

The last of eight Lubbock-based family members accused in a scheme that federal prosecutors say defrauded $250,000 from insurance companies was arraigned in federal court Thursday.

Kenneth Ray Jackson, 50, of Wolfforth faces a maximum five-year prison term and $250,000 fine on each of two counts outlined in a federal indictment.

The indictment was handed down by a federal grand jury July 22 and accuses the defendants of staging more than 30 phony traffic accidents or slips and falls in grocery or discount stores in Lubbock and the surrounding area from 1989-1997.

Jackson and his brother, Larry Ethern Jackson, 52, of Fredericksburg, their two sisters and Larry Jackson's wife, daughter and son-in-law, were named in the indictment along with an unrelated man. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Mateja said Larry Jackson organized the conspiracy and solicited family members as the scheme grew over the years.

All eight defendants were indicted for one count of conspiracy, and the other 13 counts are for mail fraud. Larry Jackson is named in each of the mail fraud counts, and family members and the other man are named in a varying number of the mail fraud counts.

In most cases, family members staged a traffic accident with their own vehicles and told police they were victims of hit-and-run collisions, according to the indictment. However, in two cases, the indictment claims Larry Jackson and other defendants intentionally collided with "unsuspecting third parties." No injuries were reported in those collisions.

Mateja also said Jackson fabricated personal injuries by slipping and falling in a United Supermarkets store in Lubbock. He also claimed to have been struck by an item that, he said, fell from a shelf at a Kmart. An attorney estimated Jackson may have received $70,000 in payments from false claims. Not all of the $250,000 was in claim checks received by family members.

The figure also includes losses from other claims related to accidents Jackson may have staged. Other sums were divided among the remaining defendants. The amount of the claims were increased, prosecutors said, when Jackson recruited family members to ride with him so they could file false injury claims.